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Celebrating Harry Potter’s birthday, DU Beat brings to you 11 ways through which you can access your own Hogwarts at the Delhi University and create your own magic!

Harry Potter has ruled the hearts and souls (refer: Hurcruxes) since we stepped into the Wizarding World through Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997. Today, as we celebrate Harry’s 38th birth anniversary, we bring to you a few parallels that you could draw from the world of muggles and magic to the world of the University of Delhi (DU) and the lack of it. Here’s tracing your journey at Hogwarts through DU:

  1. The Sorting Hat or in our case, DU cut-offs
download
Image Credits- Pottermore

 

The cut-offs act as a sorting hat (but in our case, they don’t really listen to us) as they sort us in different campuses and colleges.

  1. The Four Houses or in our case the different DU Campuses
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Image Credits – Pinterest

 

The sorting Hat, i.e., the cut-off’s divide us up in 4 separate houses:

Gryffindor: The South Campus Colleges

Slytherin: The North Campus Colleges

Hufflepuff: The East and Central Delhi Colleges

Ravenclaw: The West Delhi Colleges

  1. Dumbledore’s Army or dedicated society members
Dumbledore's_Army
Image Credits- Wikia

 

The societies in every college are led by the man behind the show himself: Albus Dumbledore. (Meeting in secret spaces because the college rarely ever gives you space for your society/ lets you miss classes for meetings)

  1. Errol Weasley or the constantly  glitching DU website
download (1)
Image Credits – Wikia

 

The Weasley’s loyal family owl is flown out to us in the form of the DU website, which never works during results or exams or pretty much ever.

  1. Dolores Umbridge or scary faculty members
Dolores_Umbridge
Image Credits- Harry Potter Wiki

 

The professors’ and the principals’ reactions towards our self-proclaimed autonomy serve as a social manifestation of the most real villain in the series, Dolores Umbridge. (Read: I must not tell lies.)

  1. Rubeus Hagrid or in our case, college gatekeepers

Every college guard is Hagrid. Try sneaking into your college without an ID and you will see what we mean!

Rubeushagrid
Image Credits – Harry Potter Wiki

 

  1. Argus Filch and Hostel wardens
WB_F4_ArgusFilch_FilchStoodInCorridor_C394-7
Image credits – Pottermore

 

Argus Filch is every strict hostel warden ever who holds on to dear curfew as if it were oxygen. How dare you return at 8:01 p.m. when the in-time was 8!

  1. Norris (Filch’s Cat) and the one classmate who is the teacher’s pet
Image credits- Screenrat
Image credits- Screenrat

 

Every teacher’s pet ever is Filch’s Cat, ready to rat on us and score extra points with the professor. CR’s can sometimes be guilty of doing so.

  1. Voldemort and exams (they must not be named)
Voldemort-Death
Image Credits – MuggleNet

 

The nose-less demon is socially manifested in our lives in the form of exams, with its Horcruxes leaching at our souls all year long through internals and practicals.

11. Howler or an angry phone call from parents

Image credits- Howler
Image credits- Howler

 

A call from angry parents is just like a howler, involving endless screaming, shouting, and embarrassed silence on our end as we get berated endlessly.

12. Hogsmeade aka Hudson Lane and Satya Niketan

Image Credits- Pottermore
Image Credits- Pottermore

 

Each Campus has its own Hogsmeade. North Campus has Hudson Lane, South Camus has Satya Niketan, and the off-campus colleges have their own few spots to go drink Butterbeer too!

 

Every year, the applications are out and the cut-offs release, DU receives its very own fresh batch of Wizards, ready to change the world in their own ways. And even though Hogwarts has no comparison and it never will, we can’t help but wonder if Hogwarts is only accessible through Platform Nine and Three Quarters or do we really create our magic, even if it is in the Muggle world.

 

Feature Image Credits:  Cnet

Muskan Sethi

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Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by J.K Rowling which first appeared in 26th June, 1997 after being rejected by several publication houses. The books have found immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. The series has now been translated into multiple languages including French, Irish, Spanish, German and Swedish to name a few. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers, and are often considered cornerstones of modern young adult literature. As of May 2013, the books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, and have been translated into seventy-three languages. The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly eleven million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release.

The plot of the story needs no introduction, it seems that almost every young adult in this generation is familiar with Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Their struggle against Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard who killed Harry’s parents has become an urban legend. Even after 20 years of Harry Potter’s first appearance, the hype created around this magical tale has persisted over time. As our generation grew, we saw parts of us and our lives reflected in the character’s laughter, tears, struggles and determination. A part of us waited with bated breath for our Hogwarts letter to arrive as we yearned to be a part of their magical world. We fantasized about being on Platform 9 ¾ , using Floo Powder, disappearing into the Room of Requirement, exploring Hogsmeade and Honeydukes, eating our hearts out at the grand feasts, possessing a Marauders Map, fighting in the resistance against Lord Voldemort and hoping for a love as deep as Severus had for Lily.

Harry Potter and his story lives amongst us and our hearts. It is a story we grew up with and we hope our future generations would grow up with as well. Today, we celebrate 20 years of Harry Potter in our lives, and here’s hoping we celebrate this momentous occasion again in another 20 years from today.

Till then, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!

Feature Image Credits: YouTube

Joyee Bhattacharya

([email protected])